The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa., Gordie Jones Column: Clemens' PR Blitz Hasn't Really Cleared Up th

Jan 09, 07:28 AM

Jan. 9--No matter your view of Roger Clemens -- maybe you think he's a stinkin' liar, maybe you think he's a heroic figure, completely above reproach -- I think we can all agree on this: He did himself no favors with his two-day public-relations blitz.

During Sunday's "60 Minutes" interview with Mike Wallace and Monday's news conference, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner vehemently denied that he had used performance-enhancing drugs. He railed about being found guilty in the court of public opinion, and having to prove his innocence.

"And that's our country, isn't it?" he asked Wallace. "Guilty before innocent."

All that, along with his decision to testify before Congress and the defamation suit he is filing against his former trainer, Brian McNamee -- the guy who told federal investigators, and those from the Mitchell Commission, that he injected Clemens with steroids and human-growth hormone 16 times between 1998 and 2001 -- give one pause.

Clemens wouldn't go to all this trouble if he were guilty, would he? And given some recent allegations of jock malfeasance (e.g., the Duke lacrosse case), shouldn't we be more willing to withhold judgment until all the facts are in?

That is precisely the problem, though: The facts aren't in. And the more Clemens talked on Monday and Tuesday, the more difficult they were to discern.

Central to this discussion is the 17-minute phone conversation Clemens had with McNamee last Friday, one taped by Clemens (unbeknownst to McNamee) and replayed at Monday's nationally televised media confab. The Clemens team would have you believe that the tape is proof of its client's innocence, that McNamee admitted he was coerced by investigators into lying about Clemens' use of performance-enhancers.

It is nothing of the sort. It is, instead, an odd little dance between the two men, one that raises more questions than it answers.

The biggest one, in my mind, is this: Why doesn't Clemens ever really answer McNamee on the many occasions when he is asked, "What do you want me to do?"

If Clemens is as incensed as he appears to be, wouldn't he have asked McNamee to go public and recant his testimony? Wouldn't he have asked him to show up Monday, as McNamee offered?

You would think so, but that never happens. Instead, we get odd exchanges such as the following:

McNamee: Tell me what you want to do. ... What do you want me to do? I'll go to jail. I'll do whatever you want.

Clemens: I need somebody to tell the truth, Mac.

McNamee: What do you want me to do right now?

Clemens: It's ridiculous.

McNamee: What do you want me to do right now, Roger?

Clemens: It's just being ridiculous.

McNamee: Who? Me?

Clemens: No, I said everything.

McNamee: Right.

The conversation is wholly unsatisfying, the two men tiptoeing around a point without ever really making one. Listening to it, you get the impression that McNamee believes he told investigators the truth about Clemens, that he feared going to jail only if he did not come clean. Listening to it only makes you wonder more about Clemens' credibility.

Other things do, too. Like when Clemens told Wallace that McNamee injected him only with vitamin B-12 and the painkiller Lidocaine; experts have since been quoted as saying that there is no mistaking B-12, which is blood-red in color, for Winstrol, one of the performance-enhancers Clemens was allegedly given, and that a shot of Lidocaine would not be given in the buttocks, as was the case with the injections McNamee allegedly gave.

Clemens also told Wallace that while he didn't use steroids or HGH, he would routinely pop painkillers such as Vioxx "like they were Skittles" -- a statement that might lead some to wonder just how far he would go to compete.

And finally, Clemens said he had "no knowledge" of HGH use on the part of Andy Pettitte, his good friend, frequent teammate and fellow McNamee client. Which is again possible -- McNamee told SI.com as much -- but something that leads to speculation to the contrary.

The upshot is this: An open mind is critical, especially in this day and age. But in coming forward, Clemens only took a step back.

610-820-6628

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